Applicants' preference for impression management tactic in employment interviews by Transportation Security Administration.

Following past findings on employment interviews, this study hypothesized applicants would have a preference for using self-promoting tactics of impression management over other focuses. Self-reports of impression management tactics were collected from 124 applicants who had interviews for screener positions with the Transportation Security Administration. Contrary to the hypothesis, analysis indicated participants reported they used more ingratiation tactics attempting to praise the interviewer than self-promotion tactics which focused on their own accomplishments.

Correlations among applicants' communication apprehension, argumentativeness, and verbal aggressiveness in selection interviews.

This study explored the influence of applicants' perceived apprehension during communication on self-reported argumentativeness and verbal aggressiveness in selection interviews. One week prior to selection interviews with corporate interviewers, 51 college students who were actively seeking career-oriented employment completed a questionnaire on their situational apprehension, trait argumentativeness, and trait verbal aggressiveness. The major findings were that (a) Trait Argumentativeness was significantly and negatively correlated with Trait Verbal Aggressiveness; (b) Apprehension was significantly and positively correlated with Trait Verbal Aggressiveness; (c) Apprehension was significantly and negatively correlated with Trait Argumentativeness; and (d) descriptive statistics indicated applicants experienced high Apprehension before the interviews.